zone5a east hartford, ct. first year growing watermelons and I'm pretty happy. Growing Jubilee and we've gotten 5 so far and am hoping to get a few more although i know there is not much time left. I know they are growable in CT as I used to raid the neighbors garden in the late 60s and those tasted even better than mine. I had not had any success until this year and I attribute that at least partly to following the suggestion about digging a post hole and filling it with compost. I also feel part of my success was as a result of covering the top of the soil with about 4 inches of shredded leaf compost which kept moisture in the soil even after 5 weeks of no rain here. I didn't want to water because of reading about the sugar concentration at the end of the growing cycle. At this point, about 1/3 of my plants are showing signs of fungus but the rest of the leaves are pretty green and healthy looking. Having read in an earlier post about first year always being the best as far as growing watermelons, I am wondering if I need to move my watermelon growing spot a bit and if so, how far from current one. The compost on top of the soil thing I got from watching the documentary film Back to Eden from 2011 and there is a part of me that hopes that the same spot with new compost on top might work, but I expect the smarter people will tell me that that is not going to work. Hoping to retire maybe to Delaware so I can extend the growing season in about 2 yrs. With a bit more land than 1/4 acre and a bit more warmth, maybe I can become successful in growing more varieties!!!

Hello Putri It sounds like you might be overwatering. Two times a day is an awful lot of water, unless it's really, REALLY dry out. I'm not sure if cilantro are big drinkers, but it might be best to let the surface dry out before watering, or else water thoroughly just once a day. The other major killer of seedlings is a fungal infection commonly known as damping off. The only way to truly sterilize soil to prevent damping off is to bake soil at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit/38 degrees Celsius for about an hour. This should kill any fungus or weed seeds already present in the soil. I've heard you can also use seed starting mixes, but I've never had any good results with them. For curiosity's sake, are you starting your plants in compost or peat?

Not me hinesh I want Cilantro! I've tried to plant Cilantro 3 or 4 times and every time it goes to seed almost immediately. There has to be something that I'm doing wrong because the stuff that u buy in the supermarkets looks great and I don't even come close to having that kind of foliage. In fact I usually don't get any Cilantro leaves at all it seems to go right into some seedy type of plant with foliage that looks more like dill than Cilantro. Can anyone give me an idea of what I'm doing wrong? Most of the time I've use fairly good soil, potting soil when it's in pots and very nice stuff when it's in the ground. Am I using too good of a soil or do I just need to cut it back before it get over 4" tall? Any help would be much appreciated because this is the one herb that I use a ton of but I just can't seem to grow it at all.

I grew ambrosia's this year. I didn't get very many because I only planted a couple of plants. However, the ones I did get were excellent. As far as what to do about the sweetness....mine were sweet and I didn't do anything to them. Also, about picking when ripe.......when the cantalope are ripe they will detach themselves from the vine. I promise!! I read this somewhere and told my husband and he didn't belive me. So I was determined to prove him wrong. The first cantalope was just turning from green and I would not touch it. Then I went out there and it did detach itself from the vine. I brought it in that afternoon, cut it up and we ate it. It was so sweet and not over or under ripe!! I also read that when growing the cantalope plants when the vine begins to get too leggy to pick off the leggy part with no blooms and it will cause more female blooms to come and produce more cantalope.